NARRATOR: On January 18, 2017, at the National History Museum
of Transylvania, ancient astronaut theorists Giorgio
Tsoukalos and Eric von Daniken were offered
a rare opportunity to get a firsthand look
at the Wedge of Aiud.
Museum curator Anna Gruia has taken it out of a storage
locker where it has been deliberately
hidden from the public since the early 1970s.
OK, I'm just going to put my gloves on.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: This is great.
ANA GRUIA: So this is it.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Oh, OK, this is strange.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: It's very heavy.
Touch it. Take it.
It's heavy.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Wow.
This was found at a depth of 10 meters, which
is about 30 feet in the ground. ANA GRUIA: Yes.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Yes, and here this
is where they took the sample out
in here to make the analysis.
And here, you see two pieces that are broken off sort of.
So maybe it was attached or something, but very strange.
So what does the museum have to say about this?
This is a very strange piece.
It is.
It is a strange piece for us as well.
As historians, we do not consider it a historical object
that we're used to.
We don't know what it was used for,
and we acknowledge these uncertainties about its dating
and its composition as well.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: So for what can you use this?
It looks like a hammer or a shovel.
But, Giorgio, what is the word in English [non-english]??
Oh, an excavator tooth.
Well, it looks like this.
It could have been something like this.
But these excavator tubes are never made out of aluminium.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: No, it's too weak.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: Aluminium is too soft.
They are made out of steel, especially hard steel.
So it could not be that.
So we have a real mystery here.
But you see this patina over this whole object?
And this creates another problem.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Yes, because you cannot fake a patina.
It's impossible to artificially create a patina.
NARRATOR: The patina is a thin coating of various metal
compounds that forms on the surface
of the metal during exposure to atmospheric elements.
The older the object, the thicker
the patina layer will be.
It takes hundreds, if not thousands,
of years for a thick layer of patina,
as this apparently is, for it to develop.
Yes, we agree.
There are two basic problems-- one,
that aluminum was not invented at the age when
we presume this was in use.
And second, it's the patina, as you noted.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: Which speaks for the date,
for the age of it.
So we still have a mystery here.
Thank you very much for showing us this object,
because I know that there was a time when nobody knew where it
was, somewhere in a box in the back, which means present-day
archeology has a problem.
And they're doing magnificent work.
But when something like this comes along, you know,
we should investigate this and not
put it in a box in the back.
Definitely.
It did depend on mentalities and official position.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: Yes.
[chuckling]
It isn't currently exhibited because we
have to admit as historians that we do
not know more details about it.
For us, it's just baffling at this point.
But taking the logic further, this conflicting information
could have just two solutions so far--
one, that it is really not so old.
And the context is irrelevant, and the patina
was somehow produced in special circumstances.
So it's a new object, strangely preserved, let's say.
And the second option is, of course, that it's
not of terrestrial origin.
In all of your adventures, how does
this compare to some of the other things
that are inexplicable?
I am helpless.
I have no idea.
That says it all right there, very bizarre.
Bizarre.
I've known about this thing since the early 1990s.
And I have to tell you that looking at it in person
was a dream come true.
And it's a very strange thing.
I mean, how do you explain this?
It certainly looks as if it was part of a larger object.